Ever since its launch in 2015, AMP project has been surrounded by controversy by website owners and SEO experts. In its early days, AMP seemed to be the solution to boost SEO performance, improve user experience, and reduce bounce rate. Many large businesses like Twitter switched their website to Google’s AMP. Moreover, the project has the backing of big names like WordPress and LinkedIn.
The reason for the popularity was it promises fast page speeds and additional visibility on Google result pages. But it takes out most of the HTML, CSS and JavaScript elements and presents a simpler version of your webpage.
In simple words, using AMP pages is like putting your website on diet to make it more attractive to users.
There are old successful case studies about the implementation of AMP pages.
But are Accelerated Mobile Pages important for SEO in 2025?
In this article, we will learn about the impact of AMPs on search engine optimization, if they still have influence on search ranking and should you implement them.
What are Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs)?
AMP is an open-source HTML framework developed by Google in October 2015 to help mobile websites achieve faster loading times. It creates lighter versions of regular web pages, by removing unnecessary HTML, CSS, and JavaScript elements.
AMP project was a direct response to Facebook’s then in-app publishing platform and Apple’s iOS 9 news aggregation and discovery platform (Apple News).
In the early days, AMP pages had a lightning bolt symbol that lets users know that a particular page will load faster then non-AMP pages. The symbol was removed in 2021, and not both AMP and non-AMP pages appear the same in SERP.
According to early study, Google AMP pages load four times faster and use eight times less data than traditional mobile optimized pages.
How Does AMP Work?
AMP consists of three major frameworks:
- AMP HTML
- AMP JavaScript
- AMP Cache
AMP HTML
AMP HTML is a restricted document, it contains a limited set of tags, and attributes to ensure pages load quickly. It removes or modifies elements that can slow down the webpages
AMP HTML documents contains:
- Document starts with <!doctype html> to send information to the browser about the type of document
- Include a top-level <html ⚡> or <html amp> tag to indicate it’s an AMP HTML page
- <head> and <body> tags define the content, i.e. headings, paragraphs, images, hyperlinks, tables, etc.
- <link rel=”canonical” href=”URL”> points to the regular canonical version of the page
- Include a <meta charset=”utf-8″> tag specify the character encoding
- Include a <meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width”> tag instruct the browser on how to control the page dimensions
- <script async src=”https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0.js”><script> tag adds extensions to the base library
- AMP boilerplate code (head > style[amp-boilerplate] and noscript > style[amp-boilerplate]) is a necessary element to be present in the section of the AMP web page.
AMP JavaScript
JavaScript is a tricky thing, because too much JS can make webpages slow and unresponsive. AMP has its own JS library that contains frameworks and components to pages quickly without writing JS or importing libraries from a third-party.
Moreover, JavaScript elements are used with an amp-script tag instead of regular <script> tag. The JS on AMP pages should not exceed 150 KB in size.
AMP Cache
The AMP cache is the best framework for fast page speed. It is a proxy-based content delivery network (CDN), it pre-feteches and per-load the AMP pages before the user even clicks on it.
Google caches the content of AMP pages on its own server and makes them ready to display with lightning speed no matter from which place users are visiting from.
Google Display AMP pages in two ways.
- Google AMP Viewer: It displays a page with a custom Google URL in the browser’s search bar with the original domain name shown underneath it.
- Signed Exchange: It displays the original URL of the page in the search bar.
What are the Advantages and Limitations of AMP?
AMP Benefits
- Improved Page Speed: The most obvious benefit of AMP is web pages load at a lighting speed. They are significantly smaller and can be loaded and displayed to users approximately 88% faster than normal mobile pages.
- Better Organic Search Performance: AMP and SEO are often linked, but AMP is not a ranking factor, but faster load time is. With improved load speed, your website will have better rankings in the search results.
- Easy to Build: The implementation of AMP is straightforward. The process is quite easy because major platforms like WordPress, Durpal, and Squarespace support it. For example in WordPress, install the AMP plugin and create AMP pages.
- Lower Bounce Rates: AMP pages improves user experience with fast load times and increases the chance of visitors staying on your website longer. It also reduces bounce rates and increases conversions.
AMP Drawbacks
- Crawl Issues: Having AMP and non-AMP versions on your website forces web crawlers to visit every web page twice, which means it quickly consumes the crawl budget. It might not be an issue for small websites, but eCommerce platforms and large publishing platforms will have serious issues.
- Extra Technical Burden: AMP pages put an extra burden on website owners and developers. They have to take care of both version of the web pages individually, to keep the synced in terms of content and SEO
- Reduced Ad Revenue: With focus on page speed and reducing elements, you can display fewer ads on your web pages. So, if your primary source is ad revenue, AMP pages are not a suitable option.
- Limited Control Over Website’s Content and Design: AMP excludes elements that contribute to slow load times. So elements that may be related to branding features may have to be eliminated to improve speed.
- Limited Social Sharing: The buttons are developed using JavaScript. So share buttons might not be displayed correctly as code of AMP is primary HTML.
What Role Does AMP Have in SEO in 2025?
AMP has no direct relation with SEO. It is not a ranking factor and Google has clarified the doubts at multiple occasions.
However, AMP and SEO are connected indirectly. AMP can significantly improve loading performance, which has a direct impact on page speed and Core Web Vitals. And Speed and Core Web Vitals are important ranking factors.
So, AMP does not directly contribute to SEO, but the outcome of the AMP pages can improve SEO in 2025. Moreover, AMP is only usable for mobile SEO not for desktop websites.
What Type of Websites Should Implement AMP Pages?
If you look at the pros and cons of AMP pages, they might not look like a solution for you, especially since the lighting icon is removed from the search results. But you can use it effectively, if your website is struggling with following issues.
- Despite speed optimization efforts, your mobile page speed is not on par
- The primary source of traffic is mobile users
- Your content is focused on new content and you want to be featured in top stories.
Does AMP Help with SEO?
AMP does not directly impact the SEO of your website, but with better page speed and core web vitals it can leave a positive impact on your website. Today, if you create an outstanding page experience and meet Google ranking factors, your website will rank high even without AMP.
So, we recommend developing stable and fast mobile products that are business specific and customized to the service or product. If you have a news website or your mobile loading speed is not getting fast, despite significant effort, then we suggest using AMP.
FAQs
Does Google still use AMP?
Yes, Google still supports AMP. Many news publishers and social media platforms like X still use AMPs but Google has removed the ranking system where AMP pages used to have a symbol and usually placed at the top to be more visible for the audience.
Can I use structured data on AMP pages?
AMP pages cannot be visually heavy, but you can add some elements to improve page appearance and readability.
Is AMP only for mobile pages?
As the name suggests Accelerated Mobile Pages, AMP is primarily designed for mobile devices. But it can improve load times and performance for desktop users as well.
How do I troubleshoot AMP Errors?
AMP validator tool is a great tool to troubleshoot AMP errors. Common errors include
Issues with prohibited HTML tags
Invalid CSS
Missing required elements
